Inside, it`s business as usual, which means it`s even hotter (thanks to all the lights), and even more crowded (``NO VISITORS`` never includes VIPs, and there`s quite a turnout today.) Famous ghosts may still haunt the Little Tramp`s former stomping ground, but right now they would have a hard time finding anywhere to stand and watch the proceedings, let alone rattle their chains.

The reasons for all the commotion? The very solid appearance of young Brit rockers Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, or OMD as they`re now called in streamlined form. In town for a mere 48 hours, they`re here shooting the video for ``If You Leave,`` their new single from the upcoming film ``Pretty in Pink,`` which stars young Americans Molly Ringwald, Andrew McCarthy and Jon Cryer and is set to open in late February.

In addition to the usual mixture of crew members, interested bystanders and nervous studio money-men, the set is packed with such high-powered guests --and fans of the band--as the film`s writer/producer John ``Breakfast Club`` Hughes, director Howie Deutch, and some of the movie`s stars.

In fact, it`s largely thanks to Hughes and company that OMD is being featured so prominently on a soundtrack whose artist roster already reads like a veritable Who`s Who of hip British bands of the `80s: Echo and the Bunnymen, the Smiths, New Order and the Psychedelic Furs, whose song ``Pretty in Pink`` originally gave Hughes the title for his film.

``I guess it does seem rather pecuilar,`` admits Andy McCluskey, singer and cofounder of the band. ``After all, here`s an all-American film about all- American kids, and they insisted on having our music for it, instead of a Springsteen or some all-guitar band.`` Happy to oblige the filmmakers, McCluskey and the rest of OMD have flown in especially from Florida where they`re still completing the last leg of a nine-month tour--with the final shot in the can, they jump back on another plane and head off to Texas for some more gigs.

They look weary but pleased with the results so far of this brief interlude from the rigors of the road. And being championed by Hughes certainly hasn`t hurt OMD in the background political power-struggle that inevitably accompanies the lucrative but uneasy alliance among Hollywood studios, rock and roll, and video promo clips.

``We`re all working really hard to avoid your typical group/soundtrack video--and it`s not easy,`` McCluskey says with a laugh. ``Paramount obviously wanted a lot of film footage in it, but we just said `No,` and they`ve had to swallow it. There`s no movie stuff in it at all, just a few visual references, and John Hughes was totally on our side on this issue. The only area where we`ve lost artistic control is over the single`s sleeve in the U.S. The studio wants the three lead characters from the film on the front, whereas we`d have preferred to do our own artwork as usual.``

``We had no idea John was such a huge fan of ours,`` adds OMD co-leader Paul Humphreys, ``until he first called us up to do this soundtrack. We`d come over to the States last summer to tour when we got this call from him inviting us down to the set of `Pretty in Pink.` It turned out that he`d originally heard us on the radio several years back, when he first came out to Hollywood from Chicago--he told us he almost missed his flight back home waiting for the deejay to say who it was.``

Major fan Hughes immediately commissioned the band to write a song specifically for the final sequence of the film. ``We didn`t see it, `cuz they hadn`t even shot it at this point, `` explains McCluskey, ``so all we had to go on was the script and a few rough ideas--write a dance track at such-and-such a tempo. After completing the first leg of our U.S. tour, we all went back home in October to write and record it, and the result was `Goddess of Love.` ``

But the song never made it into the movie. ``When we came back over to carry on with our tour, we brought the track with us and went straight to a screening at the studio to see how it worked,`` says McCluskey. ``Only it didn`t. They`d decided to radically change the entire ending, so it simply didn`t fit anymore. We were all pretty disappointed.``